This invention relates generally to creating decorative faces on masonry articles and more particularly to an inline system that pitches the edges of masonry articles in one continuous operation.
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In order to provide a decorative face to a masonry articles such as a concrete, stone or clay block the four frontal face edges of the masonry article can be removed with a hammer and chisel or with a machine operated hammer head. Done properly, with either a machine or by a stone mason, the result is a masonry article with a hand chiseled masonry appearance that is pleasing to the eye. The process of removing the face edges of a masonry article to produce a decorative effect is known in the art as xe2x80x9cpitchingxe2x80x9d. Typically, the masonry articles that are pitched can vary in size from hand placeable rectangular bricks to huge stone blocks that require machines to lift and place the stone blocks in place.
In order to more quickly chisel the face edges of a masonry article it is preferred to use a pitching machine having a pair of rotating hammer heads that strikingly remove the face edge of the masonry article by repeatedly striking the face edges of the masonry articles along the entire length of the face edge. The swinging hammer heads can quickly chip away the rectangular shaped face edge producing a decorative hand chiseled effect.
In machine pitching the masonry article is placed in a pitching machine where two parallel face edges on the masonry article are struck sufficiently hard to chip away the frontal edge to produce a decorative frontal face on the masonry article. The result is a decorative frontal edge along two opposite but parallel face edges of the masonry article. Oftentimes an architect wants to have all four frontal face edges of the masonry article removed to produce the desired decorative effect. In order to pitch all four face edges where two of the edges are perpendicularly to the others requires the masonry article to be removed from the pitching machine and the pitching process repeated on the remaining face edges of the masonry articles that are perpendicular to the pitched parallel face edges.
The present invention comprises a method and apparatus for inline processing a masonry article so that a masonry article having no pitched edges can be placed on one end of a conveyor and when the masonry article emerges from the opposite end of the conveyor all four of the face edges of the masonry article are pitched to thereby prove a masonry article with an elegant hand chiseled appearance that is in a condition ready to be transported to a work site.
An inline apparatus and method for processing a masonry article to produce a masonry article having pitched edges along face edges located in a non-parallel relationship to each other. The inline apparatus includes a conveyor line for carrying the masonry article, a pitching machine for pitching at least one of the frontal face edges of the masonry article, a flipping machine for repositioning the masonry article while the masonry article is in the conveying line and a second pitching machine for processing at least one additional face edge, which is located in a non-parallel condition to the face edge of masonry article that has been pitched.